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Some people—Errol Stone of Callowford, for example—just want to be left alone, to be forgotten and to forget.

Not yet nineteen, Errol already knows how to forget, and to hide behind the ale pot. He’s quite good at it too—until a church messenger hires him to carry a message to an old hermit, and a simple errand drags Errol into an intrigue, a conspiracy, and a deadly plot.

A common trope in fiction—or in fiction How-Tos at least—is the idea of the likeable villain. Nearly every writing book I’ve ever read has argued that villains should not be totally evil. Sauron aside, even the worst of villain should have some redeeming qualities—something that holds readers in suspense. There should be some trait, some lingering sense of good, that makes it possible for the villain to be redeemed, or at least for readers to hope for his redemption. Usually, according to the books, this means making the villain like kittens.

Captives is one of those books that reminds you why you were originally drawn to speculative fiction. I read a lot of genre books I really like, but it takes a special book to rekindle that first joy and excitement of discovery. So we are thrilled to be able to offer a copy to one of our readers. Enter to win below, then the randomizer will pick a winner on the 28th, and I will notify him or her by email.

How far are you willing to go to save humanity? This the central question Captives revolves around. Most of humanity lives in the Safe Lands, enjoying a life of decadence, but underneath the smiles and the designer looks, they are all carrying a disease. A few people remain living in the wilds away from walls and technology of the Safe Lands, free of their influence and their disease. When the government decides that the “Naturals” might be the key to finding a cure, one boy’s dreams of a life of ease are enough to sell a whole village into slavery. Once inside the Safe Lands, all the villagers must decide whether to accept the Safe Lands’ hand of friendship…and how far down the rabbit hole they can go without losing themselves.

Have you wondered if your dreams could become real? For Chris Redston they’re about to, but the world he finds on the other side of his dreams feels more like a nightmare than anything else.

In Dreamlander, by K. M. Weiland, it’s a world anyone can find in their dreams, but only a few—only the chosen—are able to travel between our world and that world. Only one Chosen can possibly make the journey during a Searcher’s lifetime, but Chris becomes the impossible second Chosen.